Violent student politics: Solution lies in reforms or ban?
During the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina, leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League have been used as “thugs” to crush protests against her regime either on the streets or on campuses
Two decades back, Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed had called for ending confrontational culture in student politics which is still relevant and demands careful attention.
Speaking at the Dhaka University convocation on 3 February 2001, then-president Justice Shahabuddin offered a simple solution to the pervasive crisis of campus violence: Delink student organisations from political parties.
Three years before his convocation speech at DU, Shahabuddin, on 30 December 1997, at another programme warned that the dream of having a violence-free campus would remain elusive as long as student organisations were involved in politics based on party allegiance.
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The successive governments ignored the call until 2008 when the Election Commission led by ATM Shamsul Huda picked up the ready-made solution given by Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed to bring an end to campus violence.
Rampant incidents of campus violence and misdeeds by leaders and activists of student organisations had prompted the EC to bring electoral reforms a decade ago for delinking student bodies from the political parties.
In 2008, a new legal provision was made for political parties registered with the EC. It said no registered political party can keep the student body as its affiliated organisation.
The aim of the reform, which remains on paper only, was to keep away student organisations from partisan politics. However, the move failed to bring much change as the Awami League, BNP and other parties declined to cut ties with their student wings.
The rest is history.
A perverted and distorted version of student politics based on power and money has transformed the party cadre into monsters
During the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina, leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League have been used as "thugs" to crush protests against her regime either on the streets or on campuses. Their latest thuggery was aimed at crushing the July protests by students.
In return, they enjoyed the impunity of every wrongdoing. Rampant violence, extortion, brutal killings and driving out opponents from campus to ensure absolute dominance on campuses and dormitories by the Bangladesh Chhatra League went unstrained.
Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) had ruled supreme when BNP was in power. Incidents of campus violence were also rampant at that time. Remember the killing of Sabikun Nahar Sony in a shootout between two factions of the Chhatra Dal fighting over tender in 2002.
The killing sparked huge protests forcing the authorities to impose a ban on student politics in the Buet campus.
The murder of Abrar Fahad, a second-year student of Electronics and Electrical Engineering in Buet in October 2019 again brought the issue of student politics to the fore. Abrar was beaten to death by several BCL activists after a Facebook post.
A perverted and distorted version of student politics based on power and money has transformed the party cadre into monsters too.
The latest incidents of the violent deaths of two youths – one on suspicion of theft, not to speak of the stealing of thousands of crores like S Alam or Salman F Rahman or ex-IGP Benazir Ahmed – the other unfortunate youth belonged to the fallen camp of authoritarian ruler sheikh Hasina.
These killings shocked the collective consciousness of the nation again, sparking widespread outcry and protest. Now the demand for banning student politics has grown louder once again.
Polls numbers favour banning student politics
The people's sentiment against student politics is so high that 93% of people think student politics should be stopped at educational institutions, according to an online poll by Prothom Alo published on 21 September.
Five per cent of the respondents participating in the poll think it would not be right to stop student politics while 2% of the respondents gave no opinion on the issue, said the report on the online poll on 'Do you think student politics should be stopped at educational institutions?' – that was posted on the Facebook page of Prothom Alo between 7 pm on 14 August and 5 pm on 20 August.
Leaders of various student organisations have said student politics based on party allegiance must stop not the student politics per se. They also insisted that the student union-based politics must continue at the higher education institutions to establish the rights of students, said the report.
The latest brutalities on the campuses makes the burden of agony heavier overshadowing the joy of freedom the students have brought by toppling Sheikh Hasina's authoritarian regime.
Authorities promptly took various actions such as suspension and arrest of students allegedly involved in the brutalities. More actions may follow.
The gravity of the incidents is enormous as those allegedly involved in the extra-judicial killings are none other than students of the country's top two public universities. As the achievement of the uprising toppling Hasina regime has been proclaimed as second independence of Bangladesh, these two brutal incidents are the biggest crimes committed against the spirit of the young generation, who aspire to build a new Bangladesh.
An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. If "anywhere" has become the place of the country's top two public universities, it is time to make a thorough diagnosis to detect the malady in student politics and strong antidotes are required to cure it.
Is banning student politics the cure?
As student politics has been blamed as the root cause for campus violence, the demand is louder for banning it to bring peace on campus. This is at best a fallacious political thinking. It is akin to cutting off the head to cure a headache.
The root causes that transformed student politics into a monster lie in a confrontational culture in national politics. The same fallacious political thinking calls for banning politics altogether. Is it wise?
Imposing an abrupt ban on student politics can not be a well-thought out solution. Student politics need extensive reforms. The first step can be an efficient and effective implementation of the electoral reforms delinking student organisations from political parties.
Elections to student councils at universities and colleges have not been held for decades. Elections at a regular interval needs to be a practice. This will help students to learn democratic norms, values and behaviour.
This will help them to grow as leaders to lead future Bangladesh. Making the most valuable population—students— apolitical can not serve the future of Bangladesh; it needs good leaders to lead it.
Massive reforms
The interim government has initiated massive reforms. It has formed six commissions to bring reforms in judiciary, constitution, election system, public administration, anti-corruption and police administration. It has also formed task forces to bring reforms in the banking sector. A separate banking commission would also be formed.
A committee is working to prepare a whitepaper on the health of the country's economy. More commissions may be formed to bring reforms in local government, education and other sectors too.
Political parties also need to reform
But none of the political parties is talking about the reforms they themselves need. Major political parties are accused of not only discouraging intra-party democratic practices but also crushing dissenting voices in the party forums. They need to be reformed first for making the state reforms sustainable.
In the past, many good reforms have gone astray because of the lack of democratic practices in the political parties themselves. They must bring an end to the confrontational culture in politics, which destroyed the glorious past of student politics. They cannot deny their greater share of responsibility in transforming student politics into the monster that it is today. They will have to come forward to save student politics.
The first step can be delinking their ties with student organisations without delay as justice Shahhabuddin had called for more than two decades ago.
